Father and daughter bring together the many Tastes of Kalamazoo

KALAMAZOO, MI -- The Taste and Brew of Kalamazoo allows participating restaurants, breweries and caterers a chance to give a "hands-on demonstration" of their art, Taste organizer Wayne Deering said.

Mike Sage tends the grill for Q-It-Up Catering during the 2013 Taste and Brew of Kalamazoo festival.Kalamazoo Gazette file

For festival goers, it becomes a tongues-on experience. Deering and his daughter/Taste manager Emily Deering spoke about the 2014 fest just before lunch, a torturous time to be talking about Sushya's tiger shrimp roll, La Mexicana's burritos, Rasa Ria's satay chicken or just a basic Big Moe's pulled pork.

"Having worked with the menu for the past three months, I really want to try some of Bell's food. The chicken cherry sausage, I can't stop thinking about that," Emily Deering said. Or she'd go for her regulars. "I always go for a Q It Up fire-thigh sammie, that's delicious."

Emily Deering will be leaving for east Africa in January, so Safari Africa's plantains and samosas were also on her mind.

The 29th annual Taste will, as usual, provide a trip around Kalamazoo and around the world in food and brews, but it's her upcoming trip, and her father's hope to cut back on his duties at the age of 63, that could put the festival in others' hands next year.

"We have to be thinking of transition, because I'm getting old," Wayne Deering said. With his daughter, who has worked at the festival since she was 13, leaving for a year to be a volunteer coordinator with Pangea Educational Development, "I'm going to be in trouble."

He's planning to meet with interested parties in August to decide what to do. "We've come up with a few people who've expressed an interest in taking over," he said.

So, next year someone else will be in charge of the festival? "That's possible," Wayne Deering said.

But until then, the Deerings are keeping the focus on small plates of Kalamazoo cuisine, as well as the beverages to wash it all down.

The "and Brew" portion of the Taste, introduced last year, "kind of exploded this year," Emily Deering said. Bell's and Arcadia will be the focus in the beer garden tent at Arcadia Creek Festival Place, surrounded by other breweries distributed by IHS and Imperial Beverage.

Southwest Michigan brews will be on tap, from Latitude 42 to Saugatuck Brewing Co., with others like Alaskan Brewing -- "that's of course not real local," Wayne Deering said.

New food servers this year include restaurant El Inka, which will sell traditional Peruvian stews and lomo saltado, a beef stir-fry; Food Street, with Chicago-style sandwiches including the "Jim Shoe" (with a combination of meats including gyro), and crepe caterers Crepes by the Lake.

Others are bringing in new dishes, like Gorilla Gourmet's Gorilla Mac 'n Cheese, and Jamin' Jerk's Tacos Trinidad fish taco. There are signs that chefs are getting very excited about Taste -- Emily keeps getting emails from them "saying they had inspiration over the weekend and they had to change their menu."